Oh boy. I hate going quiet on the blog but sometimes life takes you places where you take a plane and go, and there is just so much going on that your laptop is perpetually starving for battery and hence the posting has to wait. So, the past few weeks, while I’ve been trying to post, I’ve been over to Europe, the USA, and then after a quick trip to Kolkata, I found myself again on the road for two weeks in a row… which was essentially supposed to be one trip to start with. I was over to the Netherlands for a week, and while I was supposed to do some more meetings in other parts of Europe while…
About Ajay
1 week to enhancements to American Express Jet Airways co-branded card
Jet Airways and American Express have been together for roughly two years now, and American Express has decided it needs to freshen up the product. So, in this spirit, multiple efforts have happened in the past few months. The new changes come into effect from October 20, 2014. Firstly, American Express dropped the 1st year pricing on this card to INR 5000 along with 10000 JP Miles for sign up, with 2nd year pricing continuing to be INR 10,000. You could add another 2,000 JP Miles by taking your card via a referral. They also added 7 lounges earlier this year, although for JP co-branded cards, these were paid lounges and not free. Some good and some bad changes coming…
An insight into my miles and points balances
As I reached another 7-figure benchmark on the total number of miles and points I control (my own and my family), I thought it would be a good idea to do some slice and dice on the data for my own self to be able to understand where I stand, and for you to have an insight as well. For the purpose of this exercise, I just downloaded all my balances from AwardWallet, and assigned the same value to all the miles there. So, an Air India mile = An AAdvantage mile = A Hyatt Gold Passport Point = an IHG point. In reality they are different, because for instance you need much lesser Hyatt points to stay at a…
Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Kolkata
A long weekend is an excuse to get out of town, and October 2-6 this year was one of those with a lot of holidays. With a lot of Bengali friends, I’ve heard great things about Kolkata during the Durga Puja season, and it was one of the things on my to do list. So, this year, it was a good time to make it happen. When I started to look for hotels, I eventually narrowed it down to the ITC Sonar or the Hyatt Regency, which are two hotels I’ve been wanting to go to for a while. Luckily for me, I spotted a very good deal at the Hyatt Regency Kolkata during the Monsoon Flash sale they held…
Vistara’s loyalty program to be called ‘Club Vistara’?
Vistara, the newest Indian airline, and a new full-service airline to come into India after a long while, is going full swing to get off the ground at the earliest moment possible. They recently got their first plane delivered, an A320 by the registration number VT-TTB, and VT-TTC is also going to be over shortly. One of the interesting parts of an airline for me and this blog is the loyalty program. I’m personally loyal to a few airlines, and I think loyalty programs to lead to repeat traffic for customers. For Vistara, it seems Club Vistara may be the name they choose for their loyalty program. They recently signed up with social media handles with this name on Twitter…
British Airways got it right with the Premium Economy
Earlier this year, I sent some of my Europe travel business to British Airways because of the convenient timings I had for travel to Europe (twice daily) rather than once daily. It involved backtracking as well, and the pains of getting a visa, but that added so much flexibility to my travel plans as well, because I could spend another night at home rather than having to necessarily take a midnight flight out of India all the time to go to continental Europe. One of my earlier trips this year, British Airways bumped me up from Economy to Premium Economy, due to the Economy cabin being overbooked. And that was the first time I really started to appreciate the Premium…
Hotel Review: Grand Hyatt, Mumbai
I’ve been spending a lot of time away from home recently, and I just wanted to spend some downtime over the a weekend. However, that was not going to be possible if I decided to stay home because something or the other would have been tugging for my attention. Owing to this, I decided to spend a weekend in the hotels, and I spent one night at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, and another at the Hyatt Regency Mumbai. While I’d been to the Grand Hyatt Mumbai a lot of times, I’d never stayed there. So, after a long day at work, I headed straight to the hotel and arrived there about 6 PM. I landed up at the check-in desk…
Reviewing the SpiceJet Hot Breakfast
SpiceJet is working on a reinvention all this year, and amongst the other things they are working on, is the food they serve on the flights. Being a no-frills airline, they only offer Buy-on-board meals, but the public verdict about the food was not great earlier. Taking that feedback on board, they reworked the menu, and tied up with the TajSats for catering on board. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to be on a SpiceJet flight for my travel from Mumbai to Kolkata, and while I can do without a meal on a shorter flight, since this is a 2.5 hour long flight, and they operate from the bus gates in Mumbai where there is no provision for lounges, I…
Jet Airways’ generous offer: Double miles for international flights on JetPrivilege & Etihad Guest
A few days ago, JetPrivilege and Etihad Guest announced that they were going to offer double miles for flights taken across the Etihad Airways network, for flights till December 15, 2014. Now, Jet Airways has initiated a new promotion, where you can get double JP Miles or double Etihad Guest miles for flying on the international network of Jet Airways as well. It does look like a very good promotion, because off the bat, Jet Airways is offering double JP Miles for anyone who books their tickets over the next fortnight, and travels till December 15, 2014 on the International network of Jet Airways. Just make sure you register here. On top of that, if you fly Business Class or…
Starwood to move HO to India in 2015
Starwood Hotels is planning to move their CEO Frits van Paasschen and other key executives to come and live and work out of Starwood’s India hotels in Mumbai and Delhi for a month, in the month of March 2015. For a company in the hospitality business, to be close to their customers is important, and Starwood is making that effort. In the past, Starwood’s top brass has been over to Shanghai for a month in 2011, and in 2013, about 200 Starwood executives were in Dubai for 30 days, appreciating local nuances to build them into their management philosophy for the regions. As per the Wall Street Journal, Starwood already has 40 hotels they operate in India, and another 36…
Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Mumbai
Like I mentioned in this post, I really needed to get out of my house and get some downtime over the last weekend. So, I decided to check out the Hyatt Regency and the Grand Hyatt Mumbai over the weekend. Hyatt Regency is an airport hotel, while the Grand Hyatt is the suburban hotel in Mumbai. While I have been to the Grand Hyatt a few times to attend events or grab a bite, it was the first time I was going to be over at the Hyatt Regency Mumbai. I arrived at the hotel and went to the lobby check-in desk, where the hotel had a room ready for me. I was informed that I was booked in the…
